How to Ask Questions the Smart Way
In the world of hackers, the answers you get to your technical questions depend as much on how you ask them as on the difficulty of the problem itself.
From How To Ask Questions The Smart Way By Eric Steven Raymond.
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Mediocre questions get mediocre answers; good questions get reliable, useful answers; and “bad” questions driven by cleverness or anxiety get you “sugar-coated bullets” that look good on the surface but aren't helpful. This article will teach you how to ask questions in a way that's more likely to get you satisfactory answers.
Why Learn to Ask Questions Properly?
- If you don't know how to ask questions properly, even having access to expert contacts won't help you make effective use of them. Many people can't extract useful information even when an expert is right in front of them.
- People who know how to ask good questions tend to have more growth potential and opportunities. In the workplace, asking dumb questions is a major red flag, while asking great questions is a huge plus.
PS: So can I just skip asking questions entirely and only attend classes, read books, and gather information?
Unlike high school, many things no longer have standard answers, nor can you find every detail in books. Questions are endless — textbooks and courses can't cover all the answers. After grasping key information, you still need a “smart brain” to handle specific details, and systematic thinking is that “smart brain.”
Learning to ask the right questions is essentially the core application of systematic thinking.
How to Ask Questions Properly?
Before asking, consider three questions:
- Who to ask: Find someone who has the time, energy, and patience to answer.
- What to ask: Ask genuinely valuable questions, not ones whose answers can be easily found.
- How much to ask: Think before and after asking; don't keep pressing for answers to things you could figure out with a little thought.
Before asking, do the following:
- Try reading the manual to find the answer
- Try searching the internet to find the answer
- Clarify your goal
- Clarify the background information (of both subject and object)
- If necessary, break a complex compound question into multiple individual questions
Most of the time, people in the group will patiently help you, so don't worry. As long as your question isn't something a quick search could easily answer, or isn't particularly vague. Also, when the person answering isn't free, avoid endlessly chasing them and demanding they solve your problem.
Concrete Examples
Let's use Zhang San's question as an example:
Zhang San asks: “Do you think I should join the student union?”
Answer: “Participating in organizations like the student union during college can be quite valuable. If you're not sure which club to choose or whether to join at all, then consider joining the university student union — it's a relatively safe bet.”
Levelling up: Extract information from the asker, turning a bad question into a good one.
What information needs to be extracted?
- Purpose: Why do you want to join the student union? What do you hope to gain from it?
- Background info: What's your family background, and what are your future career inclinations? Did you have any relevant social practice experience in high school? Why haven't you considered other campus organizations (like hobby or practice-oriented clubs)?
With this information, the answerer can combine their experience and thinking to give a good answer.
But Zhang San might say: I don't know the answers to these questions either. What should I do?
Then Zhang San can start by asking these questions:
- (Purpose) What are the benefits of joining the student union? What's the biggest value?
- (Background) What clubs are there in college, and what are the differences?
- (Background) What type of person is more suited for the student union (rather than other clubs)?
This is taking a complex question and breaking it down into sub-questions to be answered separately.
Answers You Get at Different Questioning Levels
Question 0: What's the student union like?
This is the worst kind of question. You're not asking about important things, you're providing no information or signals at all, it's unanswerable, and it basically can't help the asker.
Question 1: Do you think I should join the student union?
This is a poor question. It provides almost no necessary information about purpose or background, and can only get vague or blunt answers:
Answer: If you're not sure which club to choose or whether to join, then consider the university student union — it's a relatively safe bet.
Question 2: If I want to improve general problem-solving skills, should I choose the university Youth League Committee or the student union?
This is a passable question. It clearly provides the most basic information — “purpose” — and can yield useful answers for common situations. This kind of question can get you some constructive advice, but it may not be very tailored to your personal situation.
Answer: From the perspective of building collaboration skills, both the Youth League Committee and the student union offer opportunities. However, the Youth League Committee tends to focus more on “office work and dealing with people,” while the student union focuses more on “planning and executing specific activities.” You can choose based on your own circumstances.
Question 3: I'm a typical “town-and-village exam machine” and I'm pretty introverted. If my goal is to improve general problem-solving skills, should I consider the Youth League Committee or the student union? In our school, the Youth League Committee seems to have more influence, but I've heard it's also more bureaucratic, which makes me hesitate.
This is a good question. Besides “purpose,” it also provides background information about the asker and their school's specific situation. It also includes some preliminary analysis and identifies specific points of hesitation. This type of question can get you targeted advice, and being able to ask at this level is already great.
Answer: From the perspective of improving general problem-solving skills, you need to consider two aspects:
- Whether the organization itself can provide you with opportunities
- Whether you can become a core member or even leadership within the organization
Given your situation, the extra opportunities the Youth League Committee offers over the student union wouldn't make up for the competitive risk you'd face there. In my experience, I think a “town-and-village exam machine” type would be better off starting with the student union, which is more task-oriented.
Question 4: Regarding whether to join the student union, I think my hesitation comes from not being sure what the biggest value of joining college organizations really is for my future, and whether joining any organization is even the best path to gaining that value. Could you help me with this confusion?
This is an excellent question. The asker has done systematic thinking, shows good insight, and has pinpointed the key issue. Seeing through the surface to the core, this focuses the answer on the essence of the problem itself — it's also a form of guidance in systematic thinking. This level is hard to reach and shouldn't be forced in the short term.